You just got a new Surface RT or upgraded to Windows 8 and the Xbox Music app is now giving you the error 0xc00d11cd (0x8000ffff)? And you probably cannot stream music using the Xbox Music Pass, right?

This seems to be a problem that many users are having. Luckily it seems that there is a solution; one member of the Microsoft forum suggested that this is an issue due unsupported audio drivers not being able to play protected audio stream.

The quick fix will be just to update the drivers, but it becomes more difficult when you upgraded to Windows 8 from Windows 7 or another previous OS and there are any sound card newer drivers available.

Now if you are having this issue, try the following, that of course, if you are OK using the Windows Registry:

Always remember to backup the Registry before modifying anything, doing a full backup isn’t a bad idea either.

Open regedit and navigate to

Change the DisableProtectedAudioDG value from 1 to 0 and reboot.

In Surface RT the key may not exist, so you create a dword with the above name and a value of 0 after a restart it should work.

Source Microsoft forums

Although the Mail app for Windows 8 was designed to be simple to use, the new Microsoft application model has moved to a chromeless design, where apps are center focus and settings are hidden away from the end-user.

This means that many features for new users will remain hidden until they do a search online and learn how perform certain task like, for example, the task of sending a message to a local printer or just save an email as XPS file format — the equivalent to PDF file format, but it is a Microsoft owned technology –.

If this is your case follow these simple steps to print your emails:

How to print emails as XPS using Mail

  1. Open the Mail app.
  2. Use the Windows key + C keyboard shortcut to bring charms, and click/tap Devices .
  3. Select the printer. Adjust the printer’s settings or if you need to access the advanced printer configuration, simply click More settings . When you are done configuring the settings, click back arrow button and then hit Print .

If you need to print a message as file, simply use the Microsoft XPS Document Writer option and save the email to your desktop as an XPS file.

Even though this was a pretty simple task, you can do the same even quicker by simply using the Windows key + P keyboard shortcut, selecting the printer and clicking Print .